Saturday, April 24, 2010

Emergencia Social Protest #1

Wow, I have gotten really far behind. Sorry about that, folks! Let's see if I can catch up.

We'll start with this group of pictures from early February (wow, have I gotten behind!) or a protest regarding emergencia social the emergency measures the government was considering in order to deal with lack of funding for health services. There were two protests within a week of each other, down the main avenue, Carrera 7; this is the first of them:

The white bits on the ground are pieces of confetti (i.e. ripped up used office paper) that we were throwing from our office window.

The janitor in my building looks on. This was on a Saturday afternoon, so it was just me, Hans (a colleague), and the cleaning staff.

"Emergencia Social: Profit for the few, suffering for the many"

"Your house or your life" "Uribe is dangerous for your health"

We'll save each other together or we'll sink separately"

A little skit to demonstrate the evils of the new law. The guy in the grim reaper mask with the scythe is the law.

"Doctors who prescribe enough are not criminals"

"No to the US military bases: sovereignty and dignity" - See? It's not just in the US where people can't stay on message at protests!

The police are always in the background in Bogota, but especially during marches.

A "dead body" in a stretcher (killed by the man impersonating the law with the grim reaper mask & scythe) holds a sign that is kind of hard to translate literally. "Del paseo de la muerte" is "walk of death" and refers to being brought with serious injuries to the hospital, and being kicked out and left to die because you can't pay. So: "From walk of death to genocide" means the deaths from this practice will increase dramatically under the emergencia social.

"Health isn't a favor; it's a right!"

To be honest, the daunting task of uploading all these photos is what kept me from posting for so long. Up next: a video from this same event (if, upon review, it's any good).

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I'm twentysomething US citizen living in Bogota, volunteering for a Colombian human rights NGO. I'm a feminist, an advocate of nonviolent movements, and a supporter of social and international justice.